Science Fiction/Fantasy Reviews | March 15, 2014

By Megan M. McArdle on March 28, 2014

Many readers are drawn to fantasy and sf for the chance to visit new worlds. While sf fans often prefer to travel to futuristic planets via spaceship (and they could hardly do better than to blast off with Rachel Bach’s incredible recent series finishing up with Heaven’s Queen), fantasy fans are often looking for a different kind of landscape. In last month’s column I talked about the continued popularity of urban fantasy, with its magically imbued ­real-world settings, but some readers want a more complete escape into imaginary kingdoms.

Traditional fantasy worlds used to follow a few standard proto­types, patterned heavily on European medieval history for its social structures, political systems, clothing, industry, and modes of speech. While these settings can still be found, a lot of today’s fantasy authors are dipping into other cultural wells for their worldbuilding, although they usually keep things preindustrial.

Some examples from this month’s books include Chris Willrich’s The Silk Map, which is a sword-and-sorcery fantasy with a pseudo-Asian setting. Steles of the Sky finishes Elizabeth Bear’s fantasy trilogy that features cultures modeled on ancient China, Mongolia, and Arabia. And Dead Man’s Hand is a fun anthology with settings in the American Old West that will transport readers to that rough-and-tumble time. While the castles and princes of traditional fantasy will probably always have a place in the genre, it’s great to see writers taking us to different worlds.

Series Migration

Two excellent urban fantasy series are getting fresh starts with new publishers. ­Jonathan Wood’s series featuring Arthur Wallace and MI37 got caught in Night Shade Books’ financial difficulties, but has found a new home with Titan Books, which is rereleasing No Hero (reviewed below), the first title in the series, and has committed to at least two more books. The “Night Watch” books by Sergei ­Lukyanenko were huge in Russia and had a cult following here when Miramax published the novels. Unfortunately, that publisher didn’t complete the series, and its U.S. editions have not been widely available for libraries for years. HarperCollins has picked up the rights for the series and re­released Night Watch last ­December, followed by Day Watch in ­January, Twilight Watch in February, and the fifth book, New Watch (reviewed below), in April 2014 (for some reason book four, Last Watch, doesn’t seem to be getting a Harper release). Both of these series deserve their new starts, and libraries can happily restock as needed.

DEBUT OF THE MONTH

Davidson, Rjurik.Unwrapped Sky. Tor. Apr. 2014. 432p. ISBN 9780765329882. $25.99; ebk. ISBN 9781429948388. FANTASY
In a society that has decayed from a centuries-past technological heyday, philosopher-assassin Kata is being used as a tool. She answers to Boris Autec, a minor officiate of House Technis, one of the three houses that control the city-state of Caeli-Amur. When he sends her undercover to the secret hideout of the city’s revolutionary labor protesters, Kata meets Maximilian, a seditionist with a thirst for the knowledge of lost technologies. Tensions bubble as the Houses and the seditionists head to a confrontation. VERDICT The publisher describes this novel as an example of the New Weird, and it does echo the imaginative scope of some of the best authors of that school, such as Jeff VanderMeer. Davidson (The Library of Forgotten Books) is an award-winning writer with a huge amount of talent, excelling at description and complex characters. Although the mix of high and low tech could be smoother, every aspect of his worldbuilding is exciting. This full-length debut marks Davidson as an author to watch.

The assassination of Emperor Varenechibel and three of his sons was shocking to the people of Ethuveraz, but none was more shocked than 18-year-old Maia, the youngest son and almost forgotten heir to the Elfin throne. The half-elf, half-goblin Maia had lived in exile since his birth when his now-dead goblin mother was banished by the emperor soon after becoming pregnant. When he takes the throne, Maia must adjust not only to life at court but to the knowledge that there are many who don’t believe he should rule. VERDICT Court intrigue and politics are popular fodder for fantasy novels, but rarely have they been done better than in this fantastic new novel from Sarah Monette (writing as Addison). The writing is lovely, with characters who live and breathe. Maia, especially, will tug on the heartstrings of even the most hardened reader as he struggles to find kindness and allies in the imperial court.

As his last assignment with the Fleet, Capt. Idaho Cleveland heads to the U-Star Coast City to assist with the space station’s decommissioning. Put in place as a science station around an unusual star known as Shadow, the Coast City also served as a defensive outpost against an implacable and technologically superior enemy known as the Spiders. From Cleveland’s arrival it’s obvious that things are not quite right on the station and the strange purple light from Shadow seems to be making the skeleton crew aggressive and paranoid. Isolated, resented, and bored, Cleveland builds a radio that somehow picks up a signal from across time and space that might be a message—or a warning. ­VERDICT This dark and chilling novel from the versatile Christopher (Seven Wonders; Hang Wire) builds tension expertly. Claustrophobic in mood but with the scope of great space opera, this is sf you will want to read with the light on. Although the ending arrives quickly, this is apparently the first book in a new series exploring more of the world of the Fleet and the Spiders.

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“Moist looked at the Patrician’s grey expression. He had articulated the term ‘rail way’ in something like the voice of an elderly duchess finding something unmentionable in her soup. It had total disdain floating in the air around it. But if you watched the weather of Lord Vetinari, and Moist was an expert in the Patrician’s meteorology, you would notice that sometimes a metaphysical cloudburst might very shortly turn into a lovely day in the park.”—Terry Pratchett, Raising Steam

Simon & Schuster has announced another new speculative fiction imprint, not to be confused with Saga Press, the sf, fantasy, and horror imprint for adult and teen audiences announced several months ago. This new line, Simon 451, will be an adult imprint that will publish “speculative fiction, fantasy, apocalyptic fiction, and more” in both print and electronic format (including ebook originals). The first books from Simon 451 should be hitting shelves in October 2014, and early frontlist titles include the first book in an sf series cowritten by actress Gillian Anderson (X-Files). The name of the line comes from Ray Bradbury’s seminal sf classic Fahrenheit 451, which S. & S. published for the first time in ebook format in 2011.

AWARDs season is here

It is the time of year when short and long lists for many genre awards are announced. Although the Hugo (thehugoawards.org) and Nebula (sfwa.org/nebula-awards) are the big sf/fantasy awards, there are plenty of smaller prizes as well. Some awards, such as the Hugo are fan-nominated, and others are juried. These lists, especially for some of the more offbeat awards, can be a great place to find titles to add breadth and depth to your sf/fantasy shelves.

The Philip K. Dick Awards (www.philipkdickaward.org) are given to the best books published as paperback originals in the United States. Paperbacks remain an important part of the sf/fantasy landscape, and this group usually has some interesting, offbeat picks.

The Kitschies (thekitschies.com), from Britain, are relatively new. The categories include the Red Tentacle for Best Novel and the Golden Tentacle for Best First Novel (the sponsor is Kraken Rum). This year’s slate made news owing to the number of mainstream literary novels being considered.

The Bram Stoker Awards (http://horror.org/?p=5627), handed out by the Horror Writers of America, are the premier awards for the horror genre. Looking at the preliminary ballot is a good way to discover new small presses dedicated to horror fiction.

The Brits love their sf! BSFA (bsfa.co.uk) is the award given out by the British Science Fiction Association. Both this and the Arthur C. Clarke Award (clarkeaward.com) drew fire last year for their lack of female nominees, but from the short-list of the BSFA and the Clarkes release of a long-list of female writers submitted for the prize, it looks like women are well represented in both awards this year.

This article was published in Library Journal's March 15, 2014 issue. Subscribe today and save up to 35% off the regular subscription rate.